Lending

1. Lending Karen Janke IUPUI: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis University Library (IUP) Indianapolis, Indiana

2. 10 Commandments of ILL? • Thou shalt not let a request fall off OCLC • Thou shalt return multi-volume sets to the lender all at once • Thou shalt not staple jiffy bags • Thou shalt honor the Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States

3. Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack • Fish and ILL Requests smell after four days. • Beware of the young Doctor, the old Barber, and the desperate PhD student. • A learned ILL practitioner is a greater ILL practitioner than an ignorant one.

4. But they didn’t teach me this in Library School…. • Best Practices in Medical Interlibrary Loan and Electronic Document Delivery. Special issue of Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve, Vol. 17(3) 2007 • Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: Best Practices for Operating and Managing Interlibrary Loan Services in all Libraries. Special issue of Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve Vol. 16, (1/2) 2006 • Leon, Lars E., et al. Enhanced Resource Sharing Through Group Interlibrary Loan Best Practices: A Conceptual, Structural, and Procedural Approach.portal: Libraries and the Academy 3(3) 2003, pp. 419-40

5. Lending Nuts and Bolts • What are you going to lend? • For how long? Is 30 days enough? • For how much? • How are you going to deliver it? • Do you need a computerized system to manage it? • How do you check out materials in your ILS? • How many people do you need/can you afford in order to accomplish this?

6. Library-to-Library Communications • Policies Directory / Website • Policies Directory (try searching “YOM”) • LenderWebsiteExamples • E-mail address & Phone (and in your constant data)? • Account checked at least once a day?

7. Patron Communications • Borrowers: How overdue is it? • Borrowers: Don’t ask the lending library to play the heavy – issuing invoices costs them money! • Borrowers: Complaints about fees for borrowing? Please don’t give out lending library’s name/phone number. • Borrowers: Communicate to your patrons how to renew. • Lenders: Making deals/special arrangements directly with patrons of other libraries?

8. Borrowers: To Rush or Not to Rush… • Document Supplier / British Library • Check lending library website or policies directory • Try calling or emailing lender first! • Don’t bombard lenders with a fax of an existing request.

9. You scratch my back…. • Borrower: send a thank you, and cc: their boss! • Borrower: offer to pay overnight FedEx or UPS with your account number • Lender: remember and seek them out when you need a favor

10. Moving Right Along... • Just Say “No” to Conditionals such as… • “Sorry, non circulating!” • “Sorry, we lack this year” • “Not as Cited” now goes directly to Unfilled • “We only have vol 1 of this 2 vol set, do you still want it?” (and are 1st in the string) • If you can’t find the book on the shelf and you are the first lender in the string, SAY NO.

11. Lost in the Mail? • Borrowers: If you borrow it, and it never arrives, you’re still obligated to pay for it. • Borrowers: Offer to replace a lost or damaged item on behalf of the lender.

12. ILL Departments are not Collection Managers! • But it pays to make nice with them! • Can exceptions be made? • How many items have been lost/damaged? • How many times has it circulated in the past? • Could it be replaced easily?

13. If what you’re being asked to lend/borrow is non-circ, why? • Rare? • Expensive? • In Demand? • Can you buy it?

14. Special Edition! • Lenders: Check the requested item versus what’s pulled from the stacks…. • Especially for classic literature or when there are numerous editions. • THIS EDITION ONLY statements in request

15. Citation Verification: Whose job is it? • Answer: Borrowing Library! • Google is the BFF of ILL! • Series statements? Proceedings as monograph or serials? Reprints? Freely accessible websites or e-journals? • Serials with title changes (fields 780 & 785) • Ask for help on the ILL Listserv, but give ALL the info

16. $$$ • “Our IFM report from 2 years ago shows a discrepancy and we’re now charging you $10 via an invoice.” • Mistakes happen, but check your IFM reports promptly. • If the financial error is > 6-12 months or from a different fiscal year, or can’t be solved through a dummy request, forget it! • Lenders: Don’t fill the request when the maxcost is lower than your fee! Borrowers aren’t obliged to pay.

17. Dissertation Abstracts International • Lenders: Do they really want the abstract? • Borrowers: Do your patrons know what they are requesting? • Borrowers: Google Scholar for digital repositories

18. Busy is Relative • Large volume lenders: 700+ transactions PER DAY • Small Libraries: part-time staff, may not have the expertise

19. Electronic Delivery on the Cheap • Fax Machines: Just Say No! • Odyssey Standalone • Send and/or Receive • https://osu.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/osu/lending/odysseyfaq.html • http://www.atlas-sys.com/products/odyssey/ • Can receive as a borrower without scanning as a lender. • Email PDFs • Ariel transmissions that don’t go through?

20. Dear OCLC, • Records for International Libraries who don’t lend or have any information about how to borrow from them are seriously annoying • Deflect requests based on max cost, filtered by custom holding group

21. Hiring • Hire people who have worked in food service and were good at it! • Can you type?

22. Lighten Up! • Is anyone going to die? • Borrowers: don’t be upset if your request is turned down. • Most people try to do the right thing most of the time. • ILL Karma & The Golden Rule